Man’s quest to find out his future is a bizarre one. It involves a lot of dead ends, nerve wrenching moments and confusion. ‘Samantar’, an MX Player original series is a race against time, nature and even life. It is based on a book with the same name by Suhas Shirwalker.
Story
A middle class private company employee, Kumar Mahajan (Swwapnil Joshi), ventures out to find information about his future as he has suffered enough owing to his miserable past and present.
It’s not as easy as he perceives and Kumar’s persistence to uncover the truth catapults him into a quagmire of more serious problems. He begins to try and find Sudarshan Chakrapani (Nitish Bharadwaj); a mysterious person who potentially shares a similar destiny as him. This hunt brings him face to face with situations that pose a grave threat to his very existence.
Kumar’s tryst with fate stirs the hornet’s nest. Once the future starts to unfold before him, he starts playing the game of dictating destiny which proves to be very dangerous and perilous.
Performances
Swwapnil Joshi stands out with his superb performance as an atheist who goes to extreme lengths to discover his future. He expresses his anger, fear and bewilderment brilliantly to the audience and one cannot help but sympathize with his character.
Tejaswini Pandit as Kumar’s wife, Nima, has given a good performance along with Nitish Bharadwaj, who also excels in the pivotal role of the mysterious Sudarshan Chakrapani.
Positives
The advent of OTT platforms has opened many avenues to turn great books into short films and web series to reach a wider audience and Samantar is one such attempt in this direction.
The theme looks fresh for those who have not read the book and this is the strength of the story which keeps the viewer engaged and guessing throughout.
Director Satish Rajwade has succeeded in sustaining the interest of the audience by effectively transforming the story into an engrossing thriller. The train scene which comes at the end of the series stands as a testimony to his effective execution.
Negatives
Falling into the thriller genre, Samantar deserves a better background track to put an icing on that gripping narrative it otherwise promises. It suffers from a lack of a riveting musical score which is the biggest let down.
The abrupt ending of the first season is another drawback. The web series makes the viewer go through an intense journey to no actual reward. This anti-climactic conclusion is a side effect of creators trying to end projects with cliff-hangers or shocking revelations to tease a second season.
There are great ways to execute such endings, this show does not fall into that category.
Worth it?
Samantar is a decent watch but it can leave a sour taste in your mouth with its conclusion. Overall, it is a good web-series with some obvious flaws but enjoyable nonetheless.
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